Video File Formats 351VideoVideo File FormatsWeb Design in a Nutshell, eMatter Editionuse the Indeo codec to create a QuickTime movie viewable on both Mac and
PCs, making Indeo a less attractive option for Web use.Animation
If your video clip is all computer-generated graphical imagery (i.e., not
sourced from videotape), you may want to try the Animation compressor.
Depending on the type of image, the Cinepak codec may work just as well
(or better) for these types of files.
MPEG
The MPEG codec can only be used when the final video file will be in MPEG
format (it is not compatible with other file types). It uses a lossy compression
scheme (although it may be lossless at high-quality settings) and spatial and
temporal compression. MPEG offers the best compression possible, however,
MPEGs are not yet as widely supported on the Web as other formats.
Sorenson
QuickTime 3.0 (released in early 1998) introduced the impressive new
Sorenson codec, which has promised to emerge as the new standard for video
compression.
Sorenson Video codec was designed for low-bandwidth applications and is
capable of producing files with lower data rates (if you select the Limit Data
Rate option) than Cinepak. As of this writing, its disadvantage is that users
must have QuickTime 3.0 installed in order to view videos compressed with
Sorenson, so it may take a while before it is a risk-free codec choice.
Video File Formats
As for still images, there is a wide variety of formats for video material; however,
not all of them are appropriate for the Web. This section looks at the three
primary video file formats used for web distribution:.mov,.avi, and.mpg.
QuickTime Movie (.mov)
QuickTime, a system extension that makes it possible to view audio/video infor-
mation on a computer, was introduced by Apple Computer in 1991. Although
developed for the Macintosh, it is also supported on PCs via QuickTime for
Windows. QuickTime 3.0 allows Windows users to both view and create Quick-
Time movies. In the last seven years, QuickTime has grown to be the industry
standard for multimedia development, and most hardware and software offer
QuickTime support.
Both Netscape Navigator 3.0+ and Internet Explorer 3.0+ come with QuickTime
plug-in players, so the majority of web readers are able to view QuickTime movies
right in the browser. The most recent version of the QuickTime plugin (as of this
writing) is Version 2.0 (a little confusing since it works with the features of Quick-
Time 3.0). It is installed as part of QuickTime 3.0 installation.
QuickTime movies (which may also contain audio-only information) are very
popular for distribution via the Web due to their superior compression rates
(meaning smaller files and shorter download times) and cross-platform, cross-
browser support. In fact, the QuickTime format has been adopted by the ISO